Hey there! My name is Mireille, I’m from Montreal in Canada. I own Fangirl Pixie Jar, a bookish shop. I design jewelry and bookmarks based on literature, primarily the YA genre. I’m a geek (Excelsior!), a Whovian (Doctor Who is the best TV show ever), an avid reader, a world traveler and a cat enthusiast!

2) What’s the inspiration behind your work?
I get inspired by stories I read. I try to embody the feeling of a book within every design I make. Someone has put their heart and soul into writing a book, and I want to honour that by making the best jewelry to represent what their book means to me.

3) Where did you learn how to make art and designs?
I learned on my own. Watching Youtube videos, researching sites too. I find that the more you work with a program you kinda find ways to get the result you are looking for. They do say that practice makes perfect.

4) What does your work place look like?

Oh dear! Lol! It’s very chaotic, I kinda work mostly in my room. I do have a desk but I usually work on my bed while watching Netflix. I should probably get more organized.

5) You make bookish items, where does your love for books come from?
I’ve always loved the escape from reality that books gave me. What else can bring you to so many different worlds and give you so many different emotions. I remember having fairytale books younger and how I would just reread them all the time. Throughout the years I just went on and got all sort of genre to read. My favourite is still fantasy.

6) Can you tell a bit more about how you started your store?
I started making jewelry about 4 or 5 years ago but it was more horror/gothic. It just wasn’t me, so when I rediscovered the YA genre in the last year or so, I just knew I had to change my style. I rebranded the name and started making bookish items that resemble who I was and what I liked. I also never found the necklace or earrings I wanted or the item on a particular fandom of mine, so I just decided to make them.

7) You use a lot of quotes, how does a quote end up on your products, do you select them while reading or do you read a story first and look for quotes later?
It depends, sometimes I’ll find it while reading the book but I would say most of the time, when I finish a book, I’ll do a quick search on quotes and choose the one that most speaks to me, that shows the essence of the book.

8) How do you capture the atmosphere of a story and turn it into a matching design?
Having read the book helps a lot. I sometimes have a clear idea of what I want the design to be. Like for my Fine, Make me your Villain from Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo I just knew I wanted antlers and shadows. But sometimes I’ll work on something for awhile before I’m satisfied with the design. For instance, the Nevernight necklace took me about 2 months. It’s my favourite book, it just needed to be perfect.

I’ll work on something until I feel it represents what the book means to me. I try to make it that each design is like a tiny piece of art.

9) Your shop has a magical feeling, what does magic mean to you?
Oh thank you very much. What does magic mean to me... that’s a great question. When I was a child I always imagined that magic existed but I just couldn’t see it. That right there in front of me was a fairytale world that was waiting to be discovered. I do still wish it was true, that somewhere you could just walk into an enchanted forest. I think that’s why I love fantasy novels and reading so much, because of those amazing worlds that authors create for us.

10) What are your plans for the future?
For Fangirl Pixie Jar I want to continue building the brand. I want to find other items to make like candles or mugs. I do have a Society6 store where some designs are on there. One project that I’ve been thinking about for awhile now, are fandom boxes. I’ve seen different companies making them and I am seriously thinking about starting some too.